OK, so puppies and kittens are awfully cute. But piglets can give them a run for their money—as in the case of the seriously adorable Bella, a rescued piglet who is now the face (and curly tail) of Animals Australia's pig advocacy campaign, SaveBabe.com.

This video provides a useful reminder that pigs are smart, social, and even heroic, much like the dogs and cats many of us share our homes with—and we would never even dream of eating them, right? Pigs on factory farms will never enjoy romps and belly rubs as Bella does. Instead, they'll be subjected to constant stress and denied everything that is natural and important to them—or even worse.

So since we're heading into prime cookout season, be sure to cool it with the hot dogs and spare the spare ribs. Check out these great grilling recipes for a sizzling summer barbecue that won't cause any pigs to suffer, even from hurt feelings (unless, of course, you fail to share with them).

P.S. If you watched the video closely, you may have noticed an appearance by James Cromwell, the star of Babe and a longtime friend of PETA and animals. If someone you know doesn't quite "get it" about pigs, you may want to pass along this wonderful pro-pig ad he did for us a while back.

—Jeff

Posted by Jeff Mackey

I’ve written about these Colonel Sanders effigy-burnings before, but this video really shows just how striking these demonstrations can be. This one’s from a protest in Pittsburgh earlier this month.

If you want to organize your own demonstration against KFC, (no need to get quite so fancy as this—a few friends and some simple signs is all it takes), we can walk you through the process.

The folks in our Vegan department have asked me to remind everyone that the deadline for our Sizzling Summer BBQ Recipe Contest is midnight on July 4. So, if you want to be in the running to win a new grill, among other cool prizes, get your recipes in soon. The winning recipes will also be featured on VegCooking.com.

The sky's the limit as long as the dish is vegan and suitable for a barbecue. Appetizers, salads, entrees, desserts—show us what you've got! Our panel of PETA chefs will select three winners based on taste, creativity and theme.

All this food talk is making me kind of hungry. I wonder if I can somehow scam my way onto the recipe judging committee . . .

I am very, very excited about the fact that it's finally summertime and, by extension, barbeque season. My roommate and I kicked off the season a couple of weeks ago with a Memorial Day barbeque to end all Memorial Day barbeques—Boca burgers, chick'n patties, grilled portabella mushrooms, vegan potato salad, veggie bratwurst, veggie dogs, and pretty much every other fake meat you can think of. Doubtless inspired by our legendary cookout, the folks in PETA's Vegan Campaigns Department have cooked up a little BBQ recipe contest of their own, with a sweet-ass portable grill as first prize and some other cool stuff, including a cookbook and some barbeque sauces, for the runners-up.

Anyway, if, like me, you have an unbeatable vegetarian recipe for a summertime barbeque, you should enter that bad boy here—the winners will be featured on VegCooking.com and PETA.org, so even if the portable grill isn't enough of an incentive for you, you may enjoy that opportunity for instant Internet celebrity. Also, if you have any cool vegan BBQ recipes that you'd like to share, feel free to post them. Barbeque king though I may be, I'm not above learning something new every now and then.

In our tireless quest to remind the world that all animals have the same parts, and that getting killed and cooked is just as unpleasant for cows, pigs, and chickens as it sounds (actually, more so—for more info on that, click here), PETA held a colorful "human barbeque" demonstration in downtown Nashville yesterday, which seems to have gone over fairly well with Tennesseans.

The part of the barbequed babe—naked, spray-painted red and orange, and displayed on a mock grill in front of countless astonished Nashville citizens and members of the press—was played by PETA's lovely intern Joanne. Applications for our Internship program can be filled out here.